The present invention relates to a device for controlling an electric appliance featuring a door, in particular a drier or other electric household appliance.
As is known, many commonly used electric household appliances must be provided with various safety devices to prevent improper use. For example, clothes-driers, which typically feature a rotary drum, must be prevented from being opened while the machine is on, to prevent the clothes from being expelled and, more importantly, injury to the user by the moving parts of the machine.
Driers are known, for example, in which the circuit powering the machine motor is cut off when the door is opened, thus stopping the machine, and is reconnected, and the machine turned back on, when the door is closed. For which purpose, a switch is fitted directly to the door, e.g. to the handle, and opening of the door separates two contacts, which cut off supply to the machine. Locating the switch on the door, however, not only poses problems in terms of bulk and assembly, but is also not altogether reliable from the safety standpoint: in addition to the possibility of sparks being generated in a user-hazardous position between opening and closing the door, it would be safer for the machine to be turned back on manually by the user as opposed to automatically when the door is closed.
Mechanically operated switches are also known wherein, once the switch is set to the open position, a mechanical lock intervenes to prevent it from being inadvertently closed by other than direct operation by the user. Applying such a switch to appliances of the above type, however, fails to provide an all-round solution to the safety problems referred to.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a control device which, while cheap and easy to produce and assemble, is completely functional, effective and reliable, and, in particular, ensures completely safe operation of the appliance to which it is fitted.
According to the present invention, there is provided a device for controlling an electric appliance, in particular a drier or other electric household appliance featuring a door, the device comprising a main circuit; means for cutting off said main circuit; and a hinge supporting a user-operated movable member of said appliance; the device being characterized in that said means for cutting off the main circuit comprise contact means associated with said hinge and for selectively opening and closing said main circuit when said hinge is rotated; said contact means comprising a fixed contact connected to said appliance, a movable contact carried by a movable portion of said hinge, and insulating means for electrically insulating said fixed contact and said movable contact with respect to said appliance and said hinge.
The invention also extends to an electric appliancexe2x80x94in particular a drier or other electric household appliance featuring a doorxe2x80x94comprising the control device described briefly above.
The device according to the invention is cheap and easy to produce and assemble, and is completely functional and effective in preventing improper use of the appliance to which it is fitted. The appliance, in fact, is automatically and effectively turned off when the door is opened, and turning the appliance back on calls not only for closing the door but also for direct manual intervention by the user reactivating a magnetic switch in opposition to elastic means.